ALBANY — George Amedore, a former Republican assemblyman who narrowly lost a state Senate bid, is stepping back into the spotlight.

The Rotterdam homebuilder took the stage Thursday during a gun rights rally outside the state Capitol, denouncing a recently enacted gun control measure dubbed the NY SAFE Act amid a crowd of his former colleagues.

"It's our time to be united and to hold the politicians who are supposed to stand up for our rights accountable," Amedore told the crowd. "Politicians like my former opponent, who said she would vote for the SAFE Act. We need to hold her, and all the ones who voted in favor of this terrible bill, this unconstitutional law, we need to hold them accountable."

Last year, Amedore ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate against Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk, D-Duanesburg.

The lead in their contest seesawed over a two-month, court-supervised ballot counting process. Amedore was at one point certified as the winner, but Tkaczyk eventually won by 18 votes when more ballots were opened after an appellate court ruling. Tkaczyk, through a spokesman, has said she would have supported the law, though neither she nor Amedore had been seated at the time of the Jan. 14 vote on the measure.